The spokeswoman for Quebec’s education minister said the website for the education department and the site featuring information on loans and bursaries get shut down every weekend. Kimberly Labar said the pre-emptive shut down is a way to prevent repeated attacks on the government’s system.

A spokesman for the Quebec Liberal Party said the party’s site was hacked.

“They are attacks that are pretty common,” said Michel Rochette. “We have been victims of (cyber-attacks) for the past few weeks.”

The Liberal’s site was back up on Saturday afternoon but the two government sites were still down as of 5 p.m.

QMI Agency reported that the education ministry’s website was hacked on April 19 and that the Liberal Party’s site was hacked on April 13.